Gracelyn Ford changed her family forever through her very brief 13 and a half-hours of life. Gracelyn was born in 2015 with anencephaly, a birth defect in which the brain and skull do not fully form. The condition is lethal, often before or at delivery.
“I got a call from my OBGYN that my fiancé and I needed to come in because something came back on my blood work,” recalls Gracelyn’s mother, Samantha Hicks.
After a two-week wait to see a maternal fetal medicine specialist, Samantha and her fiancé, Trey Ford, received the devastating news that their precious baby had anencephaly.
Anencephaly is a neural tube defect, the most severe of a group of birth defects affecting the developing brain and spine.
“Neural tube defects, such as anencephaly, occur very early in a pregnancy, before most women even know they are pregnant,” shared Jane Dean, RN, Statewide Coordinator of the SC Birth Defects Prevention Program at the Greenwood Genetic Center.
“It’s very difficult to make sure to get enough folic acid in our diet, so we recommend that women take a supplement of 400 micrograms a day during their childbearing years, even if not planning a pregnancy,” shared Dean.
Samantha and Trey made the decision to carry the pregnancy to term.
“After we lost Gracelyn, God answered my prayers with another baby,” said Samantha. “I took folic acid and prenatal vitamins, and of course I was extremely nervous until we saw her perfect skull and her spine on ultrasound.”
Gracelyn’s sister, Taelyn Grace Ford, was born the following year.
“We honor Gracelyn’s memory with pictures of her all over the house,” shared Samantha. “I tell her sister about her every day!”
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